Ed Page On Facebook: Should Bad Jobs Numbers Be Held Against Obama?

The following is an abridged version of a discussion on Facebook at http://www.facebook.com/edpagecourant.

Andrew Teixeira: I'm sorry ... I thought Congress had something to do with creating jobs?!?! Instead of clamoring to cut federal spending, maybe congressional leaders need to work with each other to get people back to work. Look at the numbers — private sector shows growth but public sector jobs have declined. If we were to just roll back all the federal jobs lost post-recession, the unemployment rate would be at least 1 point lower ... People need to get their heads out of their behinds to realize that.

Matt Corcoran: No, someone else.

Craig Hanson: No. It takes the cooperation of the legislative branch to assist the president, which has been lacking. Furthermore, the economic abyss that's supposed to happen in January is not helping, plus the euro situation.

Dawn Cooper: Absolutely. He owned the House and Senate for the first two years and pushed through a "stimulus bill" for nonexistent shovel-ready jobs, piling on massive debt. He has adopted policies that make it harder and more expensive for employers to hire people. He has relentlessly pushed for higher taxes, higher energy costs ... and, of course, Obamacare. The uncertainty with regard to future tax rates and the cost of future employment keeps $$$ on the sidelines. In the meantime, with gasoline prices hovering at $4 per gallon, the cost of home heating oil and food prices are excluded from the CPI, ignoring yet another tax on the economy: inflation.

Tom Nash:Obama has had nearly four years to turn the economy around. For his first two years, he had a Democratic Senate and House. His administration has not even produced a budget for three years. It is much easier for him to place all the blame on Bush than to work through the problem with sound fiscal policy!

Mark Pappa: Worst recovery eva! Yes, they should. Government job creation obviously backfired and ended up in layoffs. Slow GDP growth coupled with a lack of "forward" visability is hurting business spending.

Chris Ward: To a degree. Presidents only have so much control over the economy, especially when they inherit a near depression and Republicans run the House.

Bill Selavka: Yes, and the hurricane, the Red Sox's poor season, the overcooked steak on the grill ... We need the job creator who laid waste to thousands of jobs to line his own pockets to be in charge. Elect the morally bankrupt super rich, they will protect you.

Marie Serio DellaValle: Yes, and this is only the tip of the iceberg.

Charley Deisla: Well said, Dawn and Tom. I am so sick of hearing the biased, leftist media pigeonhole Bush as being sole responsible for the housing crisis. I do fault him for Iraq and for inheriting a surplus and turning it into a deficit, but it the Clinton administration that relaxed the loan standards, and used the federal government to force banks to lend to low-income earners, knowing well that they could never pay back the loans.

John M. Stanko: Of course the president has something to do with the unemployment numbers and believe me, he has tried to improve them; however, the right wing in Congress has seen to obstruct his every move. It is absolutely amazing that any jobs have been created during Obama's presidency, but he has managed to keep things going in at least a positive direction and has helped create millions of jobs and has stopped the downward trend he inherited.

Dan Durso: Of course not, since he's done all he could to remedy it. It was the Republican Congress, led by McConnell and Boehner, who thwarted his every move to pass a jobs bill. Those who say government can't create jobs live in some other universe, surrounded by their own Conservapedia facts. This country desperately needs infrastructure repair but Republicans only scream about the deficit — until they are in power of course. The idea that a Republican president is going to create jobs by cutting taxes on the rich is a huge hoax that's already been tried with no success. Rich people do not create jobs, especially in America. Their only concern is money and profit, and they profit much better if they create those jobs in some Asian or South American country.

Bobby Hare: As for the actual question at hand, I think Obama should be held responsible after four years. There has been absolutely no improvement and the economy is still sputtering along. Congress has put up a sizable amount of resistance, but the Senate is just as much to blame as the House. They refuse to produce a budget for three years now, and Moody's is threatening to downgrade our credit rating yet again as a result.

William Hosley: Official unemployment numbers do not factor in those who've stopped looking, are underemployed or in jobs that pay too little to repay student loans. It is — in fact — worse than 8%, and the only thing I believe will fix it is if we roll back government's share of GDP through pension and entitlement reform, strategic agency cuts, more privatization and higher taxes on those who can most afford to pay. Achieving that requires a quality of post-partisan leadership that was promised but not delivered.

Bobby Hare: William I agree with everything you said with the exception of higher taxes on the rich. Can they afford it? Probably, but the majority of them pay over 50% already. I don't know if raising taxes on them even more is the answer.

Michelle Hogard Malone: Yes. He made promises. He said it would be a one-term presidency if he didn't turn it around in three years. He hasn't. To now say, "Oops. Do over!" is not the answer.

Audrey Delnicki: Sure. Who else is there to hold acountable? Companies are still laying off people. You see it every day, a little blit in the paper, so-and-so company is letting go 50 emplyees. Then others, 1,000 or more.

Susan Fabry Daniels: When John Boehner said, "We're going to do everything —and I mean everything we can do — to kill it, stop it, slow it down, whatever we can," the part he didn't have to say is, "because the low-information voters will believe that when things don't get done, it is all the president's fault." Also ... whether it is willful ignorance or just the plain ol'-fashioned kind of ignorance, they will never accept that we could otherwise be in a crippling depression — that we were on track for much, much worse.

Alan Miner: Btw ... the job numbers weren't "disappointing." That's a bit like saying, "Shaquille O'Neal is taller than average," or "President Obama talks a lot." The jobs numbers were horrible. They're a damning indictment of a President and an administration who are perfectly clueless about how an economy works. They're a stick in the eye to the American people, delivered by a president who cares more about his own re-election than about any American jobs. ... President Obama and the Democrats sure do love poor people! All they do is they make more and more and more and more and more of them.

Diane Ballou: The jobless numbers are the fault of the sitting president at the time of the election. Oh ... I forgot ... the chair is empty.

Marty Townsend: When President Obama took office, we were losing 750,000 jobs per month. We have now had 29 straight months of job growth. Last year more jobs were created than during the eight years of GWB's term. Were it not for the cuts in government jobs, the unemployment rate would be at least a full percentage point lower. By all estimates, the president's jobs bil' would produce 1-2 million new jobs, as well as preventing more layoffs of local and state civil servants including police, fire and teachers. Considering the total lack of cooperation with the House, he's doing a damn good job.

Diane Ballou: Consider all the people 62 or older who have been laid off of high-paying jobs. Lots of people collecting Social Security (and we know how much that is a month ... not much, but it's something) because there are no jobs out there. Add all of those people, plus the people who are working part-time jobs, and you have an economic mess.

Mario Hasz: The Republicans have tried to blocked every initiative the president has had in the last two years — it is remarkable that unemployment haven't gotten worse.

Norma J. Franklin: Oooooooooooooh, of course! What Obama didn't do is the fault of somebody else!